Our semi-annual visit to Indiana is in progress.
There is clearly a gravitational anomaly in Indiana as I find time passes very slowly around here.
But we were here in time for the solar eclipse. The eclipse caused panic here. The Governor declared a state of emergency 10 days before the eclipse. You see, Strangers have entered the state to view the eclipse. Strangers. Shudder.
The police forces loved the State of Emergency and have been in a frenzy handing out speeding tickets to out-of-staters.
The eclipse weather forecast was "mostly cloudy" but turned out to actually be "most clear". The Stranger Fear, the speeding tickets and the alleged cloud cover kept us at home 30 miles east of totality, so we enjoyed a nearly total eclipse from our driveway. It was fun.
That's a view of the early stages of the eclipse. That cloud moved away in a few minutes but This Was It for eclipse photos from me
Indiana is getting ready to hire a new Governor. Now Indiana is one of the least educated states in the US, has one of the highest drug abuse rates and is below average in the household income vs expense. So candidates for Governor have plenty of policy options to chose from. I've seen ads for two candidates.
One is the current Lt Governor who calls herself "Governor" in her ads. Her main platform ... no, that's not right ... her only platform is to "Stop the Chinese". I guess some Chinese want to buy some Indiana property and jesus, who would let a Stranger invest in Indiana, let alone an Alien? She's also says it's time for Change, which is odd since her party has been in control of Indiana forever and, besides, what conservative wants Change.
The other candidate is an Independent who's only platform is to Stop the Chinese.
We have had to huddle in the basement twice so far due to tornadoes a few miles away. It snowed a couple of times and been 78 a couple of times. On the plus side, there hasn't been any mass shootings near by (so far).
I don't like it here.There are a few bridges across the Ohio River here and the most used has been under re-construction for several years now (emergency about-to-fall-down repairs closed it for six months about 10 years ago). In the four weeks we were here and while the bridge is in the probably-never-get-done reconstruction, it was closed twice more for emergency repairs. Then two semis drove off the edge of it. This truck-over-the-edge has become a common occurrence here and I can only speculate that drivers who have dared and succeeded in crossing Indiana suddenly become faced with the ugly reality of entering Kentucky and loose all hope.
There must be plus side. It's always good to see the in-laws. Is there more? What else is there in Indiana?
Well, we went to the local hipster place to eat a $15 taco. And then we went to the chain hipster taco place and had two tacos for $8. Went to the local hipster asian redneck fusion place where I had ramen with pork belly, which had a base of sweet barbeque sauce with hominy in place of noodles and a side of corn cake. Now of course you can chide us for trying tacos and ramen here in Conformistan, but much to our shock, they all had Flavor. Even a bit of spiciness. Maybe not the "right" flavors, but flavor never-the-less. Maybe there is hope for the future of Indiana.
While here we did get the RV remodeled. "Red" did the job for us and I'm glad it was Red and not us. A nasty icky job but at least the inside is nice andclean and neat now. We like the minimalist ethos. Less to break and clean and actual room to turn around.
We are rolling out of here in a couple of days and aiming for Taos.